The List: 11 Jul 1997 (Issue 309)

Every August, Edinburgh fills up with hundreds of people who are gagging for a laugh .and that’s just the comedians. For three long weeks, Edinburgh becomes comedy central for the whole world; and of course some acts have more fizz than others.

That’s where Perrier comes in. For the past seventeen years, the Perrier Award panel has been checking out every comedy act on the Fringe, sorting out the sparkling from the flat.

The Perrier Awards for Best Comedian and Best Newcomer, presented each year during the final week of the Festival, have long been the most coveted bottle—shaped items in comedy. Previous winners include Frank Skinner (1991), Lee Evans (1993), Jenny Eclair, (1995) and Dylan Moran (1996).

MﬂNTEEPEmMERPANEL

This year, one lucky reader of The List will have an exclusive opportunity to take part in the judging for the Perrier Awards.

It’s hard work, mind. You’ll be expected to see around fifty shows (many of them late at night) and share your opinion with the other judges. There’s no funny money to be made, but you’ll get free tickets for all the shows, plus a whole crate of champagne to yourself.

If you think you're the person to separate the rib—splitters from the bullshitters, and you've got some time to spare this August, send your application in now.

Write us a letter of about 250 words, telling us your views and feelings about comedy, and saying why you think you’re the person for the job.

Edinburgh: Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston * it hr After the long dominance of companies like Archaos and Circus 02, a much older form of circus returns in // Florilegio. Here, a deft company makes good use of physical skills such as clowning, trape7e and animal acts, to traditional musical accompaniment. The sense of spectacle and danger is emphasised in the trapeze acts, although the performers are so tnofeswonalthatrnoreinjunesrnay result from arm-clutching by the atmhence Huntrun-nnsmncibytluacast

A highlight is Corrado the clown, who opens the show with a popcorn- eating routine. His is a gentle and self- effacing interpretation of commedia de/I’arte tradition, the complex choreography closer to Norman Wisdom than the aggressive clowning of a Carry On film. For all that, there is plenty of 'buffo' in the act, which incorporates spitting, belching, farting and trouser-dropping. A modest amount of audience intervention is required, but there is little to fear from this, the emphasis being more on participation than humiliation.

This is an old art-form, and as such requhesthe SNaHovnng ofsonwiPC pnde.The Mrongnuniinvnesfenuﬂe audience members to feel his muscles, while the women are self-consciously body-beautiful.

Among the latter are a trouser- warmingly sub-erotic dancer, who wriggles about engagineg in a burning hoop, and a sword-balancer who provides an alternative meaning to ’big top’. Notably, the women, unlike the men, are not given a bow after the finale.

A gnu”) of anhnM-nghm demonstrators in the car-park might

also remind us of the condition of the I animals. In truth, they do appear '

overfed and apathetic, but on the night the similarly-afflicted ocCupants

of the press enclosure did not allow Unsto mand Hithe way ofthe'

entertainment, any more than the alert and amused audience. (Steve Kramer)

BALLET Scottish Ballet

On tour. 1: 1k *

Once a year Scotbsh BaHetleaves behind the big stages of the City and

i Sphtsin Iv“) kirzitvlusﬂestop tour of

the parts of Scotland most big tours don’t reach. Seen on the Dundee leg of this year's National Tour, the mini-

j company wheeled out a three—ballet

llllX to keep Viewers of all regional

variations happy, And that it dld,

For Hiose vvho hke Mien baHet pnik and frilly, things got off to a peachy

With Vesiiri, set to Verdi’s opera inumc,thuuw getcﬁfto ainechanmal start,;uid thcickincers k)0k lu7ninieclin by “K‘rUKPlXXﬁi Ccﬂnvebstue bann away, though, as the dancers get into then stnde and put backbone and